The first week of the Paris 2024 Olympics comes to a close on Friday on what is the busy day of the games so far as a number of sports continue with a whole bunch of gold medals on the line across a wide range of events.
Friday sees the start of the athletics which always increases the profile of any Olympics but there are medals to be had in plenty of major sports as well as some of the minor ones as we head towards the halfway point of the games.
Gold Medal Events
- Archery
- Athletics
- Badminton
- BMX Racing
- Diving
- Equestrian
- Fencing
- Judo
- Rowing
- Sailing
- Shooting
- Swimming
- Tennis
- Trampoline Gymnastics
Other Sports
There is sporting action everywhere you look over the course of Friday. We have previewed the tennis and the men’s football action elsewhere on this site but as well as all the sports with gold medals up for grabs we also have the team events such as hockey, handball, volleyball and water polo continuing while sports such as archery, beach volleyball and boxing also have another day of action across the venues. There is also the start of canoe slalom heats and the second round of the golf takes place too.
BMX Racing
We have had the quarter finals in the men’s and women’s BMX racing and on Friday night we will have the semi-finals and then once they are done the medals will be won and lost in what promises to be a pair of exciting finals in what is a really good sport to watch. The men’s event didn’t really throw up many clues in the quarter finals so I will concentrate on the women’s event where the defending champion Beth Shriever looked in awesome shape on Thursday night.
While this is an event which has plenty of jeopardy mixed into it, the quarter finals would suggest that the medals will be between the Briton rider Shriever, the world champion Alise Willoughby from USA and the number one ranked BMX racer Saya Sakakibara. All three women won all three of their runs in the quarter final but Willoughby was around a second slower than the other two on each occasion so she has something to find on Friday night. The speed out of the gate of Shriever was the thing which stood out more than anything in the quarter finals and if she keeps that up here she is going to be very hard to beat. The Briton won the world title last year but is only ranked fourth in 2024 but injuries are a reason for that. She looks in good order here though and I think she tops the podium at the end of the day.
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Swimming
We have three more finals in the pool on Friday night to enjoy where the highlight will undoubtedly be the men’s 200m Individual Medley final where Britain have two going for gold but the favourite will be the man who is fast becoming the athlete of the games in Leon Marchand who is unbackable at quotes of around 1/5 or so. The women’s 200m Backstroke final also takes place on Friday but it is the splash and dash of the men’s 50m Freestyle final which interests us.
We find out who the fastest man in the pool is on Friday night and British hopes will be carried by Ben Proud who has won everything there is to win in the sport apart from an Olympic medal, something he will be looking to put right here but the medal might not be the gold he craves as the Australian alongside him, Cameron McEvoy, might take some beating. This has been an excellent meet for the Australians already with five golds and five silvers whereas the Brits have been just a bit behind all week really apart from the men’s 200m Freestyle relay where they were well in front based on team members. We’ve already lost the world champion in this event but McEvoy edged Proud out for silver in Doha and dead heated with the Brit in the semi-final. The interview Proud gave after that suggested he would be happy with a medal here. Whether that was just taking the pressure away from himself remains to be seen but I didn’t like the vibes. No Australian enters a pool happy with silver and McEvoy might not need to worry. I think he takes the gold here.
Athletics
The athletics competition begins with two sessions of action on Friday with most of what is taking place being heats for events with the latter stages of them coming later in the week. We see things like the women’s 100m, men’s 1500m and women’s 800m getting started on the track while the first day of the decathlon and the high qualifying for the women are among the field events on show. There is only one final and that comes in the form of the men’s 10,000m where three African nations will battle for gold.
On seasons best times, the three Kenyans would look to have a bit to find on the Ethiopians and the Ugandans and I do fancy the gold will be between those two nations. The Ethiopian challenge looks very strong with the favourite for gold Yomif Kejelcha having the fastest time in the world this year while the Ugandan presence will be headed by the world champion Joshua Cheptegei although he hasn’t run a 10,000m all season. He is the world record holder but that was established in 2020 whereas Kejelcha and his teammate Berihu Aregawi ran the seventh and eighth fastest times in history at the Ethiopian trials. There was 0.12 seconds between them there and with the winner 5/2 and the latter 7/1 and the younger man I wonder if there could be an upset to open up the athletics programme.
Tips
Back B.Shriever to win Women’s BMX Racing for a 2/10 stake at 3.25 with Bet365
Back C.McEvoy to win Men’s 50m Freestyle for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with Betfair
Back B.Aregawi to win Men’s 10,000m for a 1/10 stake at 8.00 with Betfair
